The term local history is a misleading
one.To say that general history
is the history of larger events and more important personages, is only
to beg the question. The great event was a very local event where it
happened, and the great personage is always a very familiar experience
to his valet (or those who knew him before he became great).The city directory, we must admit, seems decidedly local history,
but if we had such a city directory of ancient Thebes, we would have a
more human and valuable knowledge of Egyptian civilization than all the
monuments of Egypt afford.We
are never conscious of history in the making; we can never tell the
ultimate significance of an event apparently local.Thus all history proves to be local history.